The Blank Space
by Replicae
Summary: There s an unexpected intruder in the Tower and leaves Tony with a lot of questions. What is Loki doing here? How did he shut down Jarvis? And why does he start a serious make-out session?
1. The Unexpected

The last years had always held surprises for Tony Stark. Yes, as a child he had dreamed to become a superhero. He had always dreamed of being like Captain America. Someone the people looked up to, someone to admire, someone to change the world. Yes, he had changed the world. Not always to the better but he had learned from his mistakes. In order to correct his history, he had changed himself. He had become a hero.

As Iron Man he had fought his demons, created new ones... It was a process. Tony was still in the middle of something, he knew. However, one day he would be satisfied with his work and lean back for a while, until the next problem crawled up from a dirty little hole.

At the moment he was doing fine. He had cooperated with SHIELD and upgraded their helicarriers with his repulsor technology. His current project was also working out just fine. The Avengers Tower, formerly known as Stark Tower until Loki had decided to use it as a portal-creating-building, was almost finished, just a few additions here and there and his teammates could move in.

The mechanic was sitting in his broad living room, a Starkpad in his lap while musing about some gadgets he still wanted to install in the empty rooms when he heard an alarm sound. "Sir, there appears to be an intruder in the lower decks. They are moving fast and-" Silence. Tony jumped to his feet and practically ran to the lab. His security system had been breached. Jarvis had been manipulated. What the hell had happened this time? Really now. It was one thing breaking into and entering his home but it was a whole different story to tinker with Jarvis.

There were more than enough people who hated his guts and would love to destroy his.. and soon to be the Avengers headquarters. People who were able to shut down his security system AND Jarvis were much rarer to encounter.

"Jarvis? Hey bud, come on. They can´t shut you off just like that.." He was jogging down the stairs into his lab and a little pissed that apparently someone HAD been able to shut off Jarv just like that he slammed down on his swivel chair. Several lights on his monitor were flashing, indicating what he had already known. Someone was in the Tower and moving around. Expert fingers moved over the console in an attempt to restart the system. It was a race against time, Tony knew. Whoever had decided to pay him a visit wouldn´t wait for him to restart and find them. Whatever they wanted, he had to stop them.

Confused the genius raised an eyebrow. The system was back and working. No alarm, no flashing lights... "Hey Jarvis, you okay?"

"My apologies, Sir. There has been memory lost. I will perform a scan to recover the lost data."

"Yeah.. do that... And while you´re doing that, tell me if there´s still that uninvited guest. You remember them, right? Sudden appearance in the Tower, shutting down the systems.. or did they delete all that? How did they get access to your servers anyway?"

"Let´s just say it´s magic." Came a male voice from a corner of his lab and Tony started surprised. He snatched one of his Iron Man bracelets and rose to his feet as calmly as he could. _Don´t show them you´re not in control. You are in control. This is your Tower. Magic my ass._ The brunette moved sideways and searched the room. One day he would get really paranoid with random villains entering and/or destroying his home seemingly becoming a regular thing. Where was that guy?

"It really is you..." The guy said from behind him and Tony swirled around. He had expected a lot but he had o admit that he was still surprised, when he saw the boy in front of him.

Ripped and burned black and golden leather armor outfit... Raven hair and piercing green eyes... Tony moved a step away from him and raised his arms in a non-provocative gesture. "Look, I´m amazed at your effort and kind of flattered that you came to visit me but maybe you could tell me why you´re here, Loki."

The boy.. no, he actually looked like a young man.. smiled, Tony noted that it actually looked sincere, and stepped forward, inspecting him closely. "It´s a long story, Anthony..."

"It always is, isn´t it? How come you look so young?" While the mechanic knew it was a good tactic to keep Loki talking, the answer also interested him. Yeah, with those Asgardians you never knew.. but it was worth a question. If Loki had found the fountain of youth Tony couldn´t deny his curiosity. Asgardians already lived a few thousand years. Kinda unfair to also get dips on the fountain of youth, right?

"I´ve been like this for a while now..." Loki answered and watched him with a longing in his eyes, that caught Tony off guard. Too many questions were running through his head, he didn´t see it coming. Loki was way too fast.

Soft, cool lips were pressed against his own. Long arms slung around his body, pressing him against leather and metal. A tongue asked desperately for entrance and Tony granted it. Definitely not what he had been expecting, but making out with Loki was not the worst case scenario, so he didn´t complain. _This could be worse.. so much worse.._ He put his hands on the others hips and deepened the kiss. He had the upper hand now. Whatever it was Loki wanted, he also wanted attention. So he would get attention until the genius came up with an idea how to fight and capture Loki best. At least that had been the plan. The urge to capture him was slowly dissolving into something else. Damn his libido, he was enjoying this way to much as was the mage who didn´t seem to plan to let him go soon.

Something had to happen, fast. Barton had been compromised by Loki once. Maybe he didn´t have the upper hand in this after all. The brunette gathered his strength and pushed at the other, who deliberately let go off him and looked a little hurt? Unfazed Tony called for his suit and watched Loki simply stare at him, while his armor began to cover him. Raising his arm and activating the repulsor he aimed for the raven haired but didn´t shoot. There was no need to.

Defeated Loki lifted his arms and bowed his head. "Go ahead. Put me in chains. You don´t trust me, do you?" The words were murmured and Tony had to admit the other reminded him of a kicked puppy with that betrayed look on his face, but he would have to think about that later.

"You give me no reason to trust you, Macbeth." His words must have struck a nerve. Loki lowered his head again and in no time at all the intruder had been put into a cell.

 _This was way too easy._ For the lack of a better idea, Tony leaned against the glass front of Loki´s cell and watched him. "Okay sweety, how about answering my questions now?" Brows furrowed in thought, the Asgardian´s eyes were on the floor. He stood in the middle of the room for a moment before he decided to move towards Tony and lean against the glass, too.

"Only if you are willing to answer some of my questions as well, Anthony." The brunette folded his arms in front of his chest and nodded. "Fine."

"The last time I saw you, you were dead. Who are you?" Piercing green eyes were staring at him again and Tony raised an eyebrow.

This would take a while...


	2. 21 Questions

Hey guys! I know it´s been a while.. but I´m a lazy person... and I also crashed my car... it´s been a little hard for me.

Sooo... I actually wrote a second chapter. And now I´m here to ask if anyone would be willing to work on this with me. As a collaboration. Since I´ve got lot´s of ideas for this story but I´m probably never gonna finish even one of them. Also I don´t have a beta.

Both men were staring at each other intensively. "Who I am? A genius? Playboy? Billionaire? Philanthropist? Tony Stark. Not sure if you´ve been taking anything but I´m sure as hell not dead. The last time we saw each other Thor brought your ass back to Asgard."

Loki kept staring at him and bit his bottom lip. The genius didn´t know the other well enough but a slightly worried, lip-biting Loki seemed a little odd to him. Yes, you had to be careful with Loki. But the whole situation was kind of weird.

"You know... last time we met, you were slightly older." He added and looked the taller one up and down. "How about telling me a little about yourself? There seems to be a bit of... confusion here.. on both sides. Enlighten me"

"Yes.. there is confusion, indeed." Came the answer in a low voice. Tony´s mind was working fast but he didn´t have enough information to get to any conclusion.

"We had a deal. I´m waiting for some answers, Loki." He had already known this would be a longer conversation but they hadn´t even started yet. Patience was something he was good at when working with machines. Not with people. His slowly growing annoyance must have shown on his face because the green eyed man on the other side of the cell cleared his throat and started playing with his hands. _Okay. Either this guy is an imposter posing as Loki or some serious shit is happening right now._ Now way was this a normal acting Loki. But he also looked like he could still be in his teens.

"It´s... complicated...really complicated... I have a theory.. but I´m not sure..." The taller began, collected himself and searched for the brunette´s eyes. "I think I´ll need some details from you..However.. with the given circumstances I think... that I´m in the wrong dimension."

Tony had no clue how long he had been leaning against the glass, watching and listening to Loki ramble about different dimensions and the recent Convergence. Hell, he needed a drink. After leaving the captured Asgardian thinking to himself, he went back to his living room, grabbed a bottle of whiskey and a glass on the way and sat down on the couch.

So the Loki in his cell was actually from another dimension. Another reality. Hence the confusion. Though the other must have left out a lot of information. Still, it was pretty obvious that they had known each other in that other dimension. They must have been close somehow, which explained the tongue action. He shook his head. Not his problem. There were other things he should concentrate on. Maybe this Loki wasn´t the only one from the second dimension that had decided to visit this one. He should probably look into it...

The more the genius thought about the possibility of a parallel world and his captive, the more he got the feeling it was wrong to keep the other Loki in that cell. Really, what had he done? The only mischief the raven had caused was Jarvis memory loss, which had been recovered. Other than his knowledge of the Loki of his own world... he didn´t know anything about his visitor.

Should he gamble and get young Loki out of that cell? Or should he contact his teammates and decide together with the other Avengers?

He downed his second glass and put it on the table. Maybe it was too early to call for the others. Not timewise.. But he knew that Steve was pretty busy playing the Captain for SHIELD.. Natasha and Clint would be working, too.. Bruce had made clear he needed a break from playing Tony´s shrink... and as far as he knew, Thor was kicking Alien asses.

 _Having Thor meet Teen Loki would be very interesting._ He wondered what Mr. Universe would do, if he saw his younger brother in that cell. Now that he thought of it... the real Loki.. _correction_.. this dimension´s Loki was in a cell in Asgard, as far as he knew. Given that Loki had actually told the truth. But why would he go as far as to tinker with his age just to lie about dimensions to Tony?

 _Screw it. He didn´t kill me before, why should he do it now?_ The brunette got up and went back to the prison level. Loki was sitting in the middle of he room and looked like he was meditating. Tony walked up to the glass and watched him a moment, until Green-eyes looked up, one corner of his mouth twitching slightly upwards.

"With all your money one could think you would have a more... luxurious prison."

Tony smirked and nodded his head. "But it wouldn´t be much of a prison if it looked like a five star hotel suite now, right?"

Slowly the raven-haired got up and sighed. "Of course... how long do you intend to keep me in here? After some time it´s going to get a little boring."

"Actually.." The cell´s glass door slipped after Tony had typed in a code. "I was planning to let you out. We´re going to discuss this whole multiverse with a drink. I still owe you one... or the other you... it actually doesn´t matter. Come one."

Later the two of them were sitting on the couch in the living room eating pizza. It was a strange sight, having Loki sit on your couch eating pizza like a normal person. He had imagined the other to be more classy... young Loki had proven him wrong with all that tomato sauce smeared around his mouth. _I prefer the messy eating one to the throwing Tony out of a window one. Thank you very much._

"While I´m very interested in knowing why you decided to let me go, I think it would be more useful to know why you put me in that cell in the first place. Yes, I know I practically broke into your tower. But still... I... I am no one who comes and goes as he pleases... in this dimension, am I?" Green eyes were practically boring themselves into brown ones. Stretching his long limbs with a sigh, Loki leaned back into the couch and made himself comfortable. His eyes were wandering over Tony´s body, who didn´t really care about it. He was used to getting oogled.

The brunette shook his head. "No. Actually.. you´re a wanted man in this world. You and an army of Chitauri attacked New York. Does that ring a bell?"

Blinking, the green-eyed man stiffened and licked the sauce from his lips. "It does... something similar happened in my world. But it wasn´t I who allied with the Chitauri and attacked earth." Suddenly there was surprise in Loki´s eyes and he leaned towards the mechanic. "Tell me exactly what happened. What did I do? I mean.. I must have been after the Tesseract if I came here with an army of Chitauri."

And so Tony explained what had happened when the older Loki had appeared on earth. He told him of the first time the Avengers fought together and how he had been defeated in the end. The teenager´s full attention was on Tony and his story. He could practically see Loki´s mind working during story time. So whatever had happened on Earth #2 it must have been pretty different. _If Loki didn´t lead the Chitauri army on Earth #2, who did?_

"So after all you´re a good guy, Lokes? Or did you do your mischievous work somewhere else?" Said demi-god pressed his lips together for a moment before he sighed quietly. "I do cause mischief. That´s who I am. But maybe you could call me that.. yeah, I´m one of the good guys. I was staying in the tower." He leaned back again and looked at the table. "Where are the others? Aren´t they staying in the tower?" He asked suddenly and the genius raised an eyebrow.

"The Avengers? Not yet... how do you know they will move in?"

"Because all of us were staying in the tower."

Well, that was a little surprising. But just a little. "So the other Tony had them already herded in the tower? I should hurry up then."

Loki simply watched him and seemed to be in deep thought. The brunette raised an eyebrow and paused. He could almost see how hard the other was trying to process the situation. _Well, this world seems to be slightly different to his own. If he´s going to stay, he will need some time to adjust._

"You know what? Since I doubt you have anywhere else to go, I´ll let you stay here. There´s more than enough rooms and having you wander around aimlessly could lead to... not so nice events like SHIELD kidnapping you. Or Clint finding you first. Just stay here until we have figured out how to break the news of your sudden arrival to the others.", Tony started and got up. "Come on, I´ll show you your room."

For the blink of an eye there was a smile on Loki´s face, before he rose and let the genius lead the way.


End file.
